I’m not so good at this whole college thing.I’m really not.And maybe it’s a bit too much to be spilling on a faceless page save for my goofy-looking mug staring out at you from a gray box, but I seriously can’t get some of the collegiate basics down.I mistake beer pong for ping-pong. I mistake alcohol for amino acids. I mistake dust in the eye for knowing, furtive winks and I mistake Facebook surfing and YouTube watching for studying and research. If brands of cheese were indicative of our collegiate skill, I would be America’s Choice.I’m Suave, and everyone else is Herbal Essences.But if I was given the choice to return to my rapscallion years of high school, even with the gilded memories of dancing to Eminem’s “Without Me” at a school dance and glancing around to wonder why none of the faculty chaperones had a problem with it, I would not return — even if it held nothing but sunny memories. And the reason is simple.We can never recapture the simple images of our nostalgia because our nostalgia is formed by stringing good — or bad — memories on a silk necklace like pearls. We group the good and the bad, separately. Then we separate them and thus nostalgia is born a painfully stupid birth akin to Maddie Briann Aldridge’s, the Jamie Lynn Spears child.And now Guns N’ Roses is essentially trying to go back to high school on Nov. 23.Even without semi-important guitarists Slash and Izzy Stadlin, “Chinese Democracy,” the album the New York Times called “The Most Expensive Album Never Released” and has been worked on since 1994, will finally be on shelves — though only at Best Buy.And no one will be particularly excited.The album, which has become a pop-culture punch-line, is a legendary bit of pop culture — not because it tugged on America’s heartstrings, but because it has never come out. As soon as it does, no one will be nearly as interested.Axl Rose is trying to recapture a time that we all remember through “Appetite for Destruction” hits “Sweet Child O Mine,” “Paradise City” and “Welcome to the Jungle,” but it’s not 1987, it’s 2008.And Guns N’ Roses, at least the Guns N’ Roses that we listen to on classic rock stations, does not exist anymore.When it comes out, instead of being the legendary bit of abstract pop culture it is now, it will be a collection of probably mediocre songs that will be forgotten after a few spins.The worst thing Guns N’ Roses can do for its album is release it.Because “Chinese Democracy” is interesting for what it represents — the long, slow death of outdated quasi-glam metal — rather than what it is.A release of this album will be more  of a reminder of 1993’s pitiable release “The Spaghetti Incident” — that disgusting-looking album featuring a close up shot of spaghetti and meat sauce and which could be found in bargain bins everywhere — which is just sort of pathetic.And that’s the problem of nostalgia, something I’ve been brimming to the top with as my graduation date approaches. The second I try to recapture an isolated feeling, everything comes rushing back.All while I’m trying to figure out who I am and where I belong.And the cherry on top is every time I go to a bar or a party or, hell, every time I begin my winding walk to Brit Lit, it seems I hear Young Jeezy screaming at me to “put on” for my city.Well, shit. I don’t even know which city is mine anymore — New Orleans or Baton Rouge.Just like Axl Rose doesn’t even know what Guns N’ Roses is anymore — that band with Stadlin and Slash or some new concoction featuring guitarist Buckethead — I don’t know what I’m even nostalgic for anymore.Because Axl Rose and I both live in the past.Young Jeezy, on the other hand, refuses to let the past cloud his brain. Unlike most rappers who brag about how powerful they are, Jeezy just spits it how it is.He got run off his corner, so in “Put On” he raps, “ran up in my spot, so now I’m working at the Super 8.” He accepts what has happened and where he is in life, keeping steady eyes on the future.He doesn’t hold onto regret. He doesn’t try to pretend like he needs to hold his corner to put on for his city, on on for his city — though it should be noted that when he is giving shoutouts to different parts of the city, he doesn’t mention “Northside.”Like Jeezy let go of his spot, Axl Rose needs to let go of Guns N’ Roses as former band mates Slash and Izzy Stadlin have, and I need to see the greener grass on the other side of college, so I can make it into the real world and write a real column in a real paper.I can see my first one already.I’m not so good at this whole real life thing.I’m really not.—-Contact Travis Andrews at [email protected]